Free The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump by Kandy Shepherd Page A

she’d already admitted to such a search. The single mum. The hard times. His rise to riches in spite of a tough start. The untold story was in a sealed file never to be opened.
    ‘It must have been tough for her. Your mother, I mean.’
    ‘It was,’ he said shortly. ‘One of the good things about having money is that I can make sure she never has to worry again.’ As a teenager he’d been the cause of most of her worries. As an adult he tried to make it up to her.
    ‘So your mother lets you take care of her?’
    ‘I don’t give her much of a choice. I owe her so much and I will do everything I can to repay her. I convinced her to let me buy her a house and a business.’
    ‘What kind of business did you buy for her?’
    Of course Eliza would be interested in that. She was a hard-headed businesswoman herself.
    ‘She worked as a waitress for years. Always wanted her own restaurant—thought she could do it better. Her café in one of the most fashionable parts of Brisbane is doing very well.’ Again, this was nothing an online search wouldn’t be able to find.
    ‘There’s obviously a family instinct for business,’ she said.
    He noted she didn’t ask about his father, and he didn’t volunteer the information.
    ‘There could be something in that,’ he said. ‘She’s on vacation in Tuscany at the moment—doing a residential Italian cooking course and having a ball.’
    Eliza smiled. ‘Not just a vacation. Sounds like it’s work as well.’
    ‘Isn’t that the best type of work? Where the line between work and interest isn’t drawn too rigidly?’
    ‘Absolutely,’ she said. ‘I always enjoyed my jobs in publishing. But Party Queens is my passion. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else now.’
    ‘From what I hear Party Queens is so successful you never will.’
    ‘Fingers crossed,’ she said. ‘I never take anything for granted, and I have to be constantly vigilant that we don’t slip down from our success.’
    She seated herself at the table, facing the view. He swooped the pizza onto the table with an exaggerated flourish, like he’d seen one of his mother’s waiters do. ‘Lunch is served, signorina, ’ he said.
    Eliza laughed. ‘You’re quite the professional.’
    ‘A professional heater-upper of pizza?’
    ‘It isn’t burned, and the cheese is all bubbly and perfect. You can take credit for that .’
    Jake sat down opposite her. He wolfed down three large slices of pizza in the time it took Eliza to eat one. ‘Now, tell me about life on the sheep ranch,’ he said. And was surprised when her face stilled and all laughter fled from her expression.
    * * *
    Eliza sighed as she looked across the table at Jake. Her appetite for pizza had suddenly deserted her. ‘Are you sure you want to hear about that?’
    Did she want to relive it all for a man who might turn out to be just a fling? He’d told her something of the childhood that must have shaped the fascinating man he had become. But it was nothing she didn’t already know. She really didn’t like revisiting her childhood and adolescence. Not that it had been abusive, or anything near it. But she had been desperately unhappy and had escaped from home as soon as she could.
    ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I want to know more about you, Eliza.’
    His gaze was intense on her face. She didn’t know him well enough to know what was genuine interest and what was part of a cultivated image of charm.
    ‘Can I give you the short, sharp, abbreviated version?’ she said.
    ‘Go ahead,’ he said, obviously bemused.
    She took a deep, steadying breath. ‘How about city girl at heart is trapped in a rural backwater where boys are valued more than girls?’
    ‘It’s a start.’
    ‘You want more?’
    He nodded.
    ‘Okay...smart girl with ambition has hopes ridiculed.’
    ‘Getting there,’ he said. ‘What’s next?’
    ‘Smart girl escapes to city and family never forgives her.’
    ‘Why was that?’ He frowned.
    She knew there was danger